Mind-boggling history: Horrible Histories at Lyceum Theatre
HISTORICAL figures and events come alive on stage as two more doses of Horrible Histories are served up at the Lyceum Theatre, July 7 to 11, 2009.
The Frightful First World War and Woeful Second World War are the latest adaptations by the Birmingham Stage Company from the best-selling books by Terry Deary who prides himself on offering children history "your teacher won't tell you or the National Curriculum won't allow them to tell you".
Deary has little time for teachers. "At school I was beaten, bullied and abused and I won't forgive the teachers. For me it was 12 wasted years," he explains. As a result, he adds, "I have always been anti-authority and anti-establishment."
Deary is a former actor who had written 50 children's novels before he embarked on the Horrible Histories.
"I was commissioned to do a joke book about history – where did the French get their guillotines? At the chopping centre, that sort of thing. They wanted me to put a few interesting facts in such as what did they test their guillotines on? The answer was pretty horrible but I felt the facts were more interesting than the jokes and put the emphasis on that."
And so a winning formula was created and one that has subsequently been much copied. Inferior imitations, insists Deary. "The reason why people tried to imitate and failed was that they saw it as a medium for historians. But it works because I am a children's author rather than a historian and publishers haven't stumbled on this."
Horrible Histories has sold more than 10 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages worldwide, but there is plenty of scope for more (graphic novels may be the next step).
He says: "I treat every book as a new venture. Each era has a different researcher and I never know what I am going to find.
"Parents say to me that their son didn't read at all until he picked up the Horrible Histories." One of the reasons, he says, is that many boys are not attracted to fiction. "It's girls who have made people like Philip Pullman and JK Rowling best-sellers," he reckons.
Though an experienced theatre writer and director, he is not directly involved in the stage production. "I cannot watch my adaptations on stage because I would do it differently but there's no point if they are just like the book," he says. "I am delighted someone has taken them on and come along and given it a new twist."
That said, he takes credit for suggesting the 3D element to the show. "I came up with the idea, knowing that kids were comfortable with virtual reality and I took the director up to show him this company in Middlesbrough who had 3D technology and that's how we created Bogglevision."
He felt it was important to encourage the audience with something different. He believes that approach has been key in developing the Horrible Histories brand. A TV adaptation began on CBBC this year and a computer game version for Nintendo, Wii, DS and PC.
He says: "There are all sorts of ways of keeping the brand fresh. The one thing I won't allow is the use of my book as school texts. I am often approached to allow it to be used for creating writing texts but I refuse. I am anti-classroom but teachers don't get it. They think I am joking when I say sack teachers and close all schools."
But surely this is a bit far-fetched? "Not at all, once you realise something is evil and has to be replaced it should be done. It requires blue-sky thinking, that's all," he says.
"People say we couldn't imagine a world without schools and I say that for two and a half million years people existed. It was only when the Victorians came along and the start of the industrial revolution and said we don't want children working in factories. We will put them all day in prisons and call them schools. With new technology coming along I can see schools no longer existing in 25 years."
Frightful First World War and Woeful Second World War will alternate at the Lyceum from Tuesday to Saturday.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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